Writhing sinners move across a seven-by-eight foot charcoal and graphite drawing

Hugo Crosthwaite: Untitled, New York 2007. Source.

Love It or Leave It

Wes Lang. Courtesy of ZieherSmith. Via.

Wes Lang dances through the bone-yard of America’s tattered narrative embracing both the darkness visible in gallows humor and the risky taunting of viewers in the face of their own taboos. Referencing the alternating pattern of American optimism and obliviousness, from the brash self-promotion and electric voice of Walt Whitman to the booze-fueled failure and heartbreak of Willie Nelson, Lang seeks the source of our duplicity by way of the traditions in our perversions and the pungent stink of our proudest moments. Expounding the violence inherent in our sexual, racial and cultural customs and all the passion of our literary, artistic and political legacies, Lang takes subject matter both canonical and vernacular at dead reckoning. In the end, he skirts political perils and pratfalls by exposing the contradictions in damning our distinctly American vision so steeped in assumptions of protection beyond the pale.

"Saline Solution" by Peregrine Honig

"Saline Solution" by Peregrine Honig. mixed media on paper. 10" x 12".

b. 1976, San Francisco, CA.

Source.

Two watercolours by Fabien Verschaere

"Untitled" (2004) by Fabien Verschaere. Watercolour on paper, 25.5x20 ins (32x24 cm), signed and numbered at the back.

"Untitled" (2004) by Fabien Verschaere. Watercolour on paper, 25.5x20 ins (32x24 cm), signed and numbered at the back.

Fabien Verschaere (1975, Paris, France) lives and works in Paris. His exhibition entitled "Babe I'm On Fire" at Parker's Box in Brooklyn, NY opens next week, September 7th 2007.

The work of Fabien Verschaere is a personal mythology articulated mainly through drawing and watercolors. These paper works and wall drawings create an intimate theatre, where recurrent patterns, human figures (self-portraits, women), animals or objects blend with each other to result in a personal and imaginary world that evokes the human condition. Verschaere's strange configurations, confrontations of characters, situations and atmospheres provoke feelings of ambiguity towards our own relationship and the artist's relationship with this curious universe. The existence alluded to here seems attractive and repulsive, exotic and banal, sometimes dangerous or exciting, sometimes full of meaning, and at others derisory and insignificant. These constant shifts provide the work with its strong foundations, while propelling the spectator towards unexpected encounters.

"Studio di Nudo" (1923) by Mario Tozzi

"Studio di Nudo" (1923) by Mario Tozzi (1895-1979). From an auction.

Three works by Jean-Luc Moerman

"Collage #52" by Jean-Luc Moerman (source)

"Untitled" by Jean-Luc Moerman (source)

"Untitled" by Jean-Luc Moerman (source)

Jean-Luc Moermans (1967) lives and works in Brussels. These are drawings on magazine pages, I think. He also does stickers, murals and paintings.

So in the morning I start with designs, then I paint, I sometimes design using magazine photos as a base; or else I start projects according to interventions in places which people propose to me; and in the evening or at night, I tend to do stickers. As I cut them by hand, this takes quite a lot of time. Tattooed ladies come rather more at the end of the day. This gives me a daily rhythm, like waves, like in music. (source)

"Dreaming (Pillow Case)" by Orly Cogan

"Dreaming (Pillow Case)" by Orly Cogan

"Orly Cogan continues to dazzle and amuse with her playful and sometimes mildly sexy embroideries on vintage fabrics, but this time she branches out in subject matter. Cogan's basic practice is ingenious. She salvages old fabrics, such as tablecloths and dresser scarves decorated in the prim floral motifs of yesteryear, and then adds to these designs her own embroideries of contemporary figures that are usually nude and sometimes erotically charged." (source: The Chicago Sun-Times - pdf)

via

Three works from the "Les Demoiselles" series by Cindy Workman

Large Woman 10, 2006, 53 7/8 x 45 7/8", digital print, plexiglass and frame

Large Woman 16, 2006, 59 7/8 x 45 7/8", digital print, plexiglass and frame

Large Woman 17, 2006, 60 7/8 x 45 7/8", digital print, plexiglass and frame

Three works from the "Les Demoiselles" series by Cindy Workman (1961, New York, USA). The exhibition at Lennon, Weinberg in Chelsea, NYC runs from January 25 – March 3, 2007. If you can, go see them, because the above reproductions can't convey the beauty of these works. They are large-format, shiny prints that almost offer the illusions of a collage with depth.

Cindy Workman breaks new ground in her current series of works devoted to images of women. The figures are large, frontal, and are formally and conceptually at the center of the compositions to a greater degree than the works seen in her prior exhibitions at Lennon, Weinberg.

Harvested from an immense number of images of women available via photographs, publications and online, Workman selects from the recent past. Drawings from the envelopes of sewing patterns provide idealized girls, demure in their frocks and bows, while soft-core nudes offer prominent breasts, come-hither poses and an occasional odd accoutrement like plastic panties. Adjusted in scale and digitally collaged, the source images yield conjoined figures of mixed dominance. Through a delicately calibrated range of opacity and transparency, the illustrated girls and photographed women vie for dominance in these figures. Despite the duality of their woman-child appearance, however, her women appear more fully as individuals than Workman’s earlier evocations of female archetypes. These portraits are powerful presences.

In the early 1990s and well before the scanner, computer and printer became her chosen tools, Workman used traditional collage and assemblage methods to examine socially assigned and culturally reinforced gender identities. Her series “The American Family” incorporated photographs of her own family with images of Popeye, Superman and their female counterparts in the comics in constructions of impeccable design and execution. In this and other works, she asks:

“What does it really mean to be a “mother” and how is that different from being a “wife” or “sister” or “daughter” or one cohesive “self” incorporating all of these fragmented identities? Because identity constantly changes and shifts depending on whom a person is interacting with and what role is being played, reality can never be fully realized in one instant and is constantly being reinvented.”

Freed from the constraints of physical assemblage, Workman was able to generate more complex, nuanced compositions in works that followed and to avail herself of a wider range of sources and references. For a time the work became more sexually explicit, about which she says, “I have been exploring the influence of sexual experience on identity and self-esteem. Individual reactions to and interpretations of sexual experience become inextricably linked to a person’s core identity.”

Workman’s compositions are inflected with the style and appearance of classic Pop-art era works and enriched with ideas associated with postmodern appropriation. Woven into her current works are multiple strands of inquiry about issues as diverse as age-appropriate appearance, plastic surgery, the questionable truthfulness of photography and technologies of printed reproduction. At a time when the internet provides virtual reality in online societies such as Second Life where participants create and furnish avatars with whatever identity they wish, Workman reflects upon the degree to which our freedom to construct an identity is shaped and restricted by social and historical boundaries.

"Untitled" (1998) by Luciano Castelli

"Untitled" (1998) by Luciano Castelli (1951), ink on paper, 100 by 70.5cm, estimated at 4,000—6,000 GBP

LOT 569 from the Contemporary Art Auction at Sotheby's London, Olympia (7 Feb 2007)

Another drawing with boobs here.

"Untitled" (1970) by Tom Wesselman (1931-2004)

"Untitled" (1970) by Tom Wesselman (1931-2004), 13.2 by 20.3cm, pencil and watercolour on paper

From an upcoming Sotheby's Contemporary Art auction. Estimated at 10,000—15,000 GBP.

More: wikipedia | images

"Me 497 Girl" (2004) by Martin Eder (1968)

"Me 497 Girl" (2004) by Martin Eder (1968), 28.2 by 22.2cm, watercolour and coloured pencil on paper

From an upcoming Sotheby's Contemporary Art auction. Estimated at 4,000—6,000 GBP.

Previous post on Martin Eder.

"Untitled (In the garden)" and "Untitled (out of the house)" (2005) by Dr. Lakra

"Untitled (In the garden)" (2005) by Dr. Lakra, ink on vintage magazine, 7.09 x 5.39 inches

"Untitled (out of the house)" (2005) by Dr. Lakra, ink on vintage magazine, 7.48 x 5.43 inches

Previous post on Dr. Lakra.

Image sources: here and here.

"Untitled (Martha Rosler Collage)" (2001-2002) by Carol Bove

"Untitled (Martha Rosler Collage)" (2001 - 2002) by Carol Bove, Period magazines, 48 x 24 inches, Private Collection

Carol Bove (born 1971 in Geneva, Switzerland) is a New York City based artist and collector.

Her work includes drawings and installations which concern the social, political, and artistic movements of the 1960s and 1970s. Ink drawings of nude women taken from "Playboy" magazines from this time period or inspired by a vintage Newsweek picture of Twiggy, or sculptures made up of bookshelves with books from the same time are examples of Bove's work.

sources: image | text

Two paintings (1977-1978) by Franz West

Untitled (1977) by Franz West, paint on magazine ad in artist's frame, 11 x 8 1/4 inches, 11 x 8 inches

Untitled (1978) by Franz West, paint on magazine ad in artist's frame

Franz West's (Austria, 1947) experimental sculpture, furniture and objects fuse Freud with form, sculpture with painting. Using brightly-coloured aluminium, papier-mâché or collage, West creates images and situations bordering on the taboo. [..] Franz West's forefathers are the Viennese Actionists - 1960s performance artists who used the body to trigger cathartic experiences. West gives form to attitudes through a series of plaster body parts or off-the-peg performance props, forcing the body into poses which are part hilarious, part agonised.

[..]

Franz West is fascinated by images in glossy magazines and the allure of soft-porn and the motor industry. In a playful critique of consumer culture, he paints over these advertisements to isolate images and highlight their absurdity. West has also become famous for the furniture-sculpture he has been making since the 1980s, inviting us to lie on his couches to relax, socialise and become transformed into artist's model, psychiatrist's patient and work of art. His offer of participation also extends to other artists - Martin Kippenberger, Michelangelo Pistoletto and Wolfgang Tillmans have all contributed to West's subversive, sociable and aesthetically challenging vision.

(source)

image source: here and here

Six works by Martin Eder

"Memoirs of My Nervous Illness" by Martin Eder, watercolour and graphite on paper

"Memoirs of My Nervous Illness" by Martin Eder, watercolour and graphite on paper

"Memoirs of My Nervous Illness" by Martin Eder, watercolour and graphite on paper

"Don't Trust Violence" (2003) by Martin Eder, 2003, Oil on canvas, 53 x 42 inches (framed), Rosette Delug Collection

"Dead Star / Black Hole / Shine On My Little Light / Big Pancake Peacefest" (2000) by Martin Eder, polystyrol, 7x8 m

"My sick eyes search for you" (2002) by Martin Eder, installation with 16 watercolours

"My sick eyes search for you" (2002) by Martin Eder, installation with 16 watercolours

Martin Eder (1968, Augsburg, Germany) lives in Berlin.

Don't be fooled by the initial cuteness of his paintings and watercolours. It's all about context, baby. His paintings, drawings, watercolours, videos and photography are often part of quite gothic installations and performances. The monumental "Dead Star [..]" sculpture above consists of a vast amount of polystyrene insulation boards, bought from your average DIY store and piled on top of each another, arranged in tiers, sawn, snapped, torn into shape, painted black and finally glued together.

Some small samples of his work can be seen through this page but most of the images above are taken from PDF catalogues found on this page. The "Don't Trust Violence" painting was found here.

"Femme nue sur le dos, maintenant les cuisses écartées" (1900) by Auguste Rodin

Auguste Rodin, Femme nue sur le dos, maintenant les cuisses écartées, ca. 1900, Crayon graphite, estompe et gouache sur papier crème. H. 25 x L. 32, 6. D. 6189 ” Musée Rodin, Paris.

"Playboy" (2005) by Jacob Dyrenforth

"Playboy" (2005) by Jacob Dyrenforth, Pencil on paper, 11 x 14.5 inches, 27.9 x 36.8 cm

Jacob Dyrenforth (1975, Cincinnati, Ohio) makes photo-based, meticulously executed, graphite drawings of pixilated images drawn from subcultures of the recent past. He received a BFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (1998) and an MFA from the Columbia University School of the Arts (2003). His solo exhibitions include Some get strong, some get strange, Sandroni Rey, Los Angeles; The Yearn, Wallspace, New York (2006) and Vice. And Versa, 31 Grand Gallery, New York (2005).

(source)

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Three drawings by Matt Brown

"Sticks and Stones: Part One" by Matt Brown, 24x25", coloured ink on illustration board

"Sticks and Stones: Part Three" by Matt Brown, coloured ink on illustration board

"Endocrine Series" by Matt Brown, 10x8", coloured ink on illustration board

Matt Brown is represented by Christopher Cutts Gallery in Toronto, Canada. Make sure you click on the images above to see the detail in the large versions.

If you have more info on Mr. Brown please let us know because his dealer's site does not have a bio, and "Matt Brown" is a bitch to google.

(via)

Two drawings by Hiroshi Kaieda

Two drawings by illustration artist Hiroshi Kaieda (1972, Japan)

From an interview:

Q3: What are the best characteristics of your drawing?
A3: There is no warmth.

Q9: Where do you get your inspirations from? (Example: from books, TV, etc)
A9: From word and gesture of people, and from music and movie.

Q12: Do you like any animals?
A12: Human and dog. I love them.

Q14: How do you spend your weekends?
A14: Sleep, day dream and date.

via here and here

"Liguero (Garter Belt)" (2004) by Dr. Lakra

"Liguero (Garter Belt)" (2004) by Dr. Lakra, ink on vintage magazine page, 47.9 x 31.1 cm, signed "Dr. Lacra" lower right. This work is unique.

This work is from an auction.

Dr Lakra is a tattoo artist living and working near Mexico City. In his parallel activities here, however, Dr Lakra transfers his draughtsmanship onto the idealised figures in 50’s Mexican magazines. Pin-up girls, wrestlers, beauties and cuties are tattooed and 'enhanced' in ink with bats, demons, spiders and the faces of pouting vixens. Like pertinent graffiti, the relative innocence of another era is politicised and the images are infused with a relish for the diabolical. Beautification or social identification, the works are a carnival of the grotesque. Kitschy erotica, ancient ritual, and hallucinogenic visions are fused in a collage of ideologies. (source)